As the students enter the classroom, I would display a PowerPoint (or similar) that shows the top three slogans from the class - the ones that they created in yesterday's lesson. It is the students’ job to determine which of the three they will adopt as their own! To accomplish this task, I utilize www.polleverywhere.com. This website is a valuable classroom tool that we use frequently in my courses. Setting up an account on the site is free (with limited features) and I highly encourage you to check it out! You can create polls in for a wide variety of activities or response types. For this particular response, I have the students respond to Choice A – Choice B – or Choice C, which are aligned to their favorite mission statement and slogan. The results of the poll are projected "real time" in a bar graph - a great entry level illustraiton of MP 4, by the way! This not only accomplishes the task of quickly totaling the numbers, but it also familiarizes the students with a tool that we will use very frequently throughout the year.

Following the vote for the best slogan, I scroll through the 3 top mission statements and have the students vote on that as well. I will have this mission statement ready for them to sign on the following day so that I can post it outside my classroom door. The students take pride in this activity as they hope to create the most uniqe identifier of any class!

Prior to digging into the foundation of what will motivate our mathematical journey this year, the math practice standards, I have the students view this STEM Video advertisement that portrays several elementary students as job interview candidates.

The video is funny to watch, and it illustrates to the students that they are nearing the end of their public school journey. Job interviews are not as far fetched as they once were in their elementary school days! Since many future careers are projected to be Science-Technology-Engineering- and Math focused, it is a great way to draw the students into the world of the Math Practice Standards.

I begin by asking the students: When engaging in mathematics in “the most awesome and productive way,” what does this look like?

I take time to record the student responses on the board as they produce them. When more clarity is needed, I probe the students to be more specific by asking if they could share an example for the class. This activity leads us nicely into the roll out of the formal Math Practice Standards – many of which will be generalizations of the student’s responses on the board! They know what good math looks and feels like as much as anyone… you don’t have to be an expert!

I like your way of introducing the math practices - and completely agree with you about how they are so important to the CCSS. I have been really stressing and working on MP1 and MP3 this year. One thing we developed are "Exit Tickets" (formative assessment) that tie in the Math Practices. We have one question on content and one question on the math practices each day - they can be as simple as checking a box about which practice a student used that day. It wasn't until I started asking them which practice they were using that the really started to dissect and understand what they mean. Some students didn't know "quantitatively" or "precise," etc. Keep up the good work! If you want to check out our blog about it it is commoncorecohort.wordpress.com